News Article

Rebels claim points over Force in Perth

The Melbourne Rebels have claimed a seven-point victory over the Emirates Western Force in Perth tonight, taking the match 30-23 – an identical scoreline to the two sides’ Week One encounter.

While the home side enjoyed its share of attacking possession and crossed for three tries with another disallowed, it was unable to make up the eventual difference, taking only a bonus point from the to-and-fro encounter.

Emirates Western Force Head Coach Michael Foley said he was disappointed that tonight’s performance did not build on the development the side had shown in its earlier matches.

“That was a game that we could have won,” he said. “Up until this point we’ve had some results that haven’t gone our way but the shape of the game for us has been much, much better previously.

“We’re very disappointed with that performance; within the vicinity of 20 turnovers in that match makes it very, very hard for you to build pressure and ultimately we got pipped.

“There was times out there that we could have got other points and I think had we got away with the result tonight, I’d still feel the same way. I don’t think that was a performance consistent with anything we’ve done this year.”

While the Force controlled possession through the opening exchanges, it was the Rebels that hit the scoreboard first with a James O’Connor penalty goal and tries to Hugh Pyle and Jason Woodward opening up a 15-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The home side appeared to have responded when outside centre Winston Stanley put Hugh McMeniman in down the left wing, only for TMO Matt Goddard to adjudge that McMeniman had knocked on in the act of grounding the ball.

The Force crossed in earnest 13 minutes later when captain Matt Hodgson overlooked a simple shot at goal to drag his team back in to the match. The risk was rewarded with Stanley diving over in the corner two phases later to open the Force’s account.

While his conversion faded across the goal face, Sias Ebersohn landed two penalty goals late in the half to bring the deficit to four points, going into the break at 15-11.

The Rebels restored some breathing space nine minutes into the new term when winger Richard Kingi charged onto a short O’Connor pass to score, with the Melbourne fullback landing a 58th-minute penalty goal for a 23-11 lead.

The Force sparked to life on the hour mark when fullback Will Tupou leapt over for his first Super Rugby try, while a neat Stanley grubber six minutes later allowed winger Pat Dellit to slide in behind the defence for his maiden provincial five-pointer, levelling the scores at 23-all.

With both sides eyeing off a much-needed win, it was the speed of man-of-the-match Woodward that settled the score when he kicked through and beat the converging defence to touch down for the final converted try of the evening.

While the Force battled away in the dying minutes for the draw, it was unable to bridge the gap and will return to nib Stadium next Saturday (13 April) to take on the Crusaders.